Robertson Says North Told Him of Iran Hostage Talks

SEATTLE —  As Lt. Col. Oliver L. North tells it, U.S. dealings with Iran to free hostages were shrouded in secrecy and charged with mortal danger, and so Congress and the country had to be kept in the dark.

But, in the middle of sensitive U.S. moves in the Mideast, North met television evangelist Pat Robertson at a Washington airport and casually blurted out that the United States was negotiating with Iran, Robertson said Friday.

Robertson, now a Republican presidential aspirant, said North did not specify that the negotiations were to be kept quiet, and Robertson went on to ask President Reagan about it that same week--during a TV interview.

Chance Encounter

“We just happened to bump into each other,” Robertson said about his encounter with North on Sept. 13, 1985, at a private air terminal in Washington. “ . . . He just happened to say I’m going to Iran to meet some of the leadership to try to negotiate the release of some of our hostages.”

Robertson said North asked: “Would you please pray for me?”

North has described going to Iran in May of 1986 but is not known of have traveled to Iran in September of 1985. However, events of the week of Sept. 13 included delivery in Iran of U.S. TOW missiles from Israel and the release of one hostage, the Rev. Benjamin Weir.

Robertson’s disclosure was made in a speech to a convention of Young Republicans here, and he added details at a news conference.

Interviewed President

Just days after his encounter with North, Robertson recalled, he interviewed Reagan for his Christian Broadcasting Network.

Robertson said he withheld the name of North, whom he described as a friend, and phrased the question to the President this way: “I understand a member of your official family has left for Iran to discuss negotiations for the release of the hostages?

“The President said, ‘I don’t want to discuss this,’ ” Robertson recalled “ . . . What he said, essentially, was I don’t want to conduct negotiations in the newspaper. He didn’t deny it.”

Robertson added: “That’s one of the things that sometimes surprises me, is that it wasn’t anything secret, we had it there on national television in September of 1985.”